TRUE LOVE AT TULANE 2024
by Theo Mitchell
An artist once said lovers don’t finally meet because they have been with each other all along. But, excuse our bias, the love that’s found is even sweeter when it happens on our grounds between St. Charles and Claiborne.
Whether it was move-in day or that weekend party on Broadway, it’s a beautiful hullabaloo when you spot that person that will forever change your life for the best. Below is a sweet collection of stories submitted by Tulanians on how they met their significant other.
At last, we welcome you to True Love at Tulane.
John (A ’77) & Gale Payne (N ’77)
We met in 1974 at a party in Monroe. Our first date was in 1975, and we married in 1981. Our oldest daughter is A&S ’15. It was during her matriculation that we rekindled our love of all things, Tulane and New Orleans. We decided to treat ourselves for our 40th anniversary and purchased a little pied a terre in the warehouse district.
Greg Jones (B ’14, B *14) & Alex Justen (SSE ’13)
We met the first day of Freshman year – we lived on the same floor in Butler. Alex eventually started grad school in the Midwest while I stayed a fifth year to finish my Masters in Accounting, then I followed after him. Several moves, two houses, two dogs, and 14 years later, I finally popped the question last fall.
Chelsea Landau (SSE ‘16) and Jake Stone (B ‘16)
We met at a Sigma Delta Tau/Zeta Psi mixer our Freshman year and crossed paths again a few years later when we had an Educational Psychology class together and lived across the street from each other. We officially started dating our Senior year, and now we’ve been together for almost 9 years. We got married in New Orleans in 2022!
Dani (B ’16) & Jeremy Michelson (SSE ’16)
We met exactly one week before graduating in 2016 through a mutual friend. He asked me to be his girlfriend for the week – we both thought why not! What’s there to lose? In seven days, he’d be off to California and I was taking a trip to Thailand. Well, seven years later in September 2023, we got married! We now live in New York City together with our dog, Harley <3
Tara (SLA ’22) and Eli Fisher (A ’21)
My Freshman year in 2018, I joined a club called Reformed University Fellowship. There, I met Eli, but we didn’t start dating until my junior year in 2020, during the pandemic! We both stayed in New Orleans after graduating; He is an architect and I am headed to law school in August. We had an incredible wedding celebration in Audubon Zoo in June.
Will Martin (SLA ’14) & Meredith “Merry” Cherney (SLA ’14)
Will and Merry were Environmental Studies majors. On the first day of Evolutionary Biology, their professor gave a lecture on why it was important to attend class. The processor concluded with, “Even if you do nothing professionally with this knowledge, you might meet your partner in class.” As fate would have it, the professor was right. Merry and Will first bumped into each other dissecting earthworms in that very same class and were married 12 years later!
Ezana (E ’98, E *99) & Nicole Azene (NC ’99)
After freshman year, I helped with orientation to get a head start on meeting the new freshman ladies. It paid off! We met that week, fell in love, and never looked back. 28 years later we’re married with three kids. Our first date involved watching a movie in McAlister Auditorium and sitting on the bench in front of JL talking until the early morning. Thinking about it still makes me smile, and so does she!
Cameron Leahy (SLA ’18, SLA *23) & Julia H. DeSimone (SLA ’19)
We met during Tulane early move-in in August of 2015, and were dating by December. Now, we’ve been together over eight happy years. Just last year, we finally tied the knot in our adopted home of New Orleans.
Jaclyn (NC ’99) & Cory Scott Anderson (E ’00, E *00)
I met Cory’s Mom in the bathroom on the 4th floor of Monroe on Move-In Day freshman year in 1995. She was changing for a parent orientation event and I helped her with a tricky zipper. She asked if I’d met her son yet. At the time, I had not. 10 years later, I married him and we’ll celebrate our 19th wedding anniversary this spring.
Sydney (SSE ’19) and Josh Diamond (B ’20)
My husband and I met at a kick back in Butler Hall. After a while of talking, someone said Josh’s last name so I had to ask, “is your last name really Diamond, like a Diamond?” When he confirmed, I told him I needed to marry him because I liked his name better than mine. Josh and his friends laughed, he said “sure!”, and the rest is history!
Steve (E ’01) and Courtney Hardie (NC ’01)
We started dating our junior year after meeting and becoming friends during our freshman year. Our 20th wedding anniversary was in June, and we have passed on our love for Tulane and NOLA to our three kids, including trips to Mardi Gras and football games. We just started the college search process with our oldest child and can’t believe how different it is from when we left for Tulane 25 years ago!
Jacob (SLA ’16) and Elizabeth Pozzi (SLA ’16)
Jacob and I met our senior year at Tulane University both majoring in Digital Media Production. We recently tied the knot in March 2023 and even had our bachelor/bachelorette parties in New Orleans during Mardi Gras. We live in Los Angeles with our dog who we flew out from New Orleans when we adopted her our senior year! It’s a different feeling to walk through campus married and reminisce on the times when we were college students. We always look back at the fond times we had at Tulane and know we always have New Orleans.
Jeffrey (A ’67) and Miriam (Mickey) Carol Rosenblum (NC ’67)
Jeffrey Rosenblum and Mickey Kronsberg knew each other while at Tulane through the Greek system and mutual friends. However, dad did not date red-heads and mom thought the frat boy from NY was a little wild for her. But after college, both ended up working in Rock Center in NYC – Jeff at Harrison Annobon Lavitz Architects and Mickey at Simon & Schuster. They started meeting for lunch and after six weeks were engaged. Shortly after their 1969 wedding, they moved to Mickey’s hometown, Charleston, SC, where they still remain happily married.
Lisa (NC ’95) & Brandon Strauss (B ’92)
Lisa Rosenblum started at Tulane where Brandon Strauss was also in attendance. While they certainly must have crossed paths that year at Reily Center or their favorite bar, Rendon Inn, they do not recall meeting while at school. Just before Lisa’s graduation, Brandon was visiting NoLa with Lisa’s cousin, and they were all supposed to meet at House of Blues. But the boys did not show up, leaving Lisa standing outside (pre-cell phones) with three expensive tickets ….. After apologies were made, Lisa agreed to meet Brandon for dinner in Atlanta a few weeks after her graduation. Ten months later they were engaged. Lisa and Brandon also live in Charleston now with their daughter, Freddie.
Carly (PHTM ’17, PHTM *18, PHTM *19 ) & Richard Carthon (B ’16)
We didn’t formally meet until Richard graduated and Carly was a senior, but we recently found a photo of us nearly right next to each other in the background of a crowd at an event we happened to both attend Carly’s first weekend at TU after transferring schools. Some call it coincidence, others call it fate! Here we are 9 years later, we got married in New Orleans in 2022 on St Patrick’s Day weekend.
Zoe (SLA ’16) & Jake Cross (SLA ’16, M’20)
We met freshman year right after hurricane Isaac, and had our first date shortly after that. We shared many fabulous memories together during our time at Tulane and were long distance for four years during grad school. To this day, we still love saying ‘Roll Wave’ to each other. Since graduation we got married, both found jobs in Chicago, and try to come back to New Orleans as often as possible!
Elizabeth Mire (A ’16) & Sebastian Pierre (A *15)
We first met in Rome, IT with Tulane School of Architecture in 2014. We became friends instantly and enjoyed an amazing study abroad experience, then went home to New Orleans and made it official. After graduation, we spent a few years working and living in DC, and returned to NOLa during the pandemic. In 2022, Seb proposed on a typical evening stroll in front of Richardson Memorial Hall. In the blink of an eye, it’s 10 years later… we are married and still best friends! Thanks, Tulane!
Oliver (E ’94) & Christina Hernandez (SCS ’11)
Oliver and I met the Summer before he was a freshman at Tulane – many years and two children later, I attended Tulane. We married right after his Tulane graduation in 1994. Our 30th wedding anniversary will be in July. We now reside in the Charleston, South Carolina area.
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